Restaurant LuLu closes without warning in SoMa

Lulu special events manager Darla Parks told Scoop that the restaurant’s ownership made the decision to close on New Year’s Day, effective immediately. And it came without any type of warning, she said.

“It’s just a sad day,” Parks said.

Hoodline first posted the news after a tipster shared an image of a sign outside the restaurant that thanked customers “for 24 wonderful years.”

Lulu’s might be the most notable early year closure in Bay Area dining. The news just continues a common theme from 2016: older institutions are struggling survive.

When LuLu opened in 1993, the restaurant pioneered family style dining, along with many other trends, from the signature iron-skillet roasted mussels to communal seating to the South of Market location. In 1993, Examiner critic Jim Wood described the ground-breaking nature of the restaurant: “But it’s the food that’s a shock: a new, original style. There’s nothing like it in San Francisco. ”

“When it opened, the location at Folsom and Fourth streets seemed like a detriment, but the concept was so exciting,” wrote Chronicle critic Michael Bauer in a 2014 review. “I can’t think of another restaurant that better created and foreshadowed the trends we see now.”

Much of the buzz around LuLu when it first opened could be attributed to Reed Hearon, the pioneering Bay Area chef who eventually ended up leaving the restaurant three years after it opened in 1996.

The writing could have been on the wall at the time for Lulu considering Bauer said the food was generally a letdown on his 2014 return trip. He said the kitchen might have grown “lethargic and formulaic” in its approach.

No further details have been released about the reasons behind the closure.